China's once-celebrated Traffic Elevated Bus (TEB) has been left abandoned in the middle of a Hebei city road, not having moved once in over two months. Originally touted as the futuristic solution to urban traffic jams, the "straddling bus" is currently causing them.A local reporter recently checked up on "the future of public transportation" at its testing site in Qinhuangdao, only to find it forgotten in a rusted garage, covered in dust.
— shanghaiist.com

"To test its invention, the company actually leased part of a city road in Qinhuangdao. Since the bus now remains exactly where it was abandoned , it continues to block three lanes of traffic, annoying residents to no end."The 'road-straddling bus' previously in the Archinect news: Public transit... View full entry »

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has completed work on the Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE), a major new cultural center in the Futian Cultural District of Shenzhen. The “monolithic” structure houses two separate institutions, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Planning... View full entry »

The cooling tower was being built in the city of Fengcheng in Jiangxi province when the scaffolding tumbled down [...]

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged local governments to learn from the accident and hold those responsible accountable. [...]

China has suffered several major work-safety accidents in recent years blamed on weak regulatory oversight, systemic corruption and pressure to boost production amid a slowing economy.
— ap.org

According to the Associated Press, the collapse is "the country's worst work-safety accident in over two years." The cause is currently under investigation.Related on Archinect:Five dead after eight metre concrete wall collapses in Birmingham, EnglandBerkeley balcony collapse investigation: no... View full entry »

On the eastern edge of Shenzhen, a new university campus designed by Foster + Partners just opened. The China Resources University, a 55,000 sq. meter project, is part of a larger mixed-used development headed by the London-headquartered firm.According the press release, the campus sits on a hill... View full entry »

Located on the eastern edge of the body of water commonly referred to in English as the South China Sea, the Philippines is among the countries that dispute China’s claim to the area and its islands. Earlier this year, a Hague-based tribunal, constituted under the United Nations Convention on... View full entry »

The Dutch-Chinese firm NEXT Architects has a well-deserved reputation for designing eye-catching bridges. Their latest project, a bright red, Mobius strip-like pedestrian bridge for the Chinese city of Changsha, is set to become another jewel in their portfolio.185 metres long and 24 metres tall... View full entry »

The China Philharmonic Orchestra has revealed designs by MAD Architects for a new concert hall in Beijing. The 26,587 square meter concert hall will contain 1,600 seats laid out on a series of “terraces”. Developed with acclaimed acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who also worked on the Walt Disney... View full entry »

There is a city which is suffering a worse property bubble than Sydney, whose residents are more priced-out than Londoners, and where there is a greater divide between the housing haves and have-nots than even San Francisco.

That city is Vancouver, and in response to these mounting challenges, the west-coast Canadian metropolis recently imposed an extraordinary new tax on foreign buyers – whose impact is now being watched closely by other cities grappling with bloated property markets.
— theguardian.com

Related stories in the Archinect news:Mayor of London launches probe into the impact of foreign investment in city's real estateAnother case of "poor door" for proposed Vancouver high-riseCan Vancouver break out of its 'boring-architecture' mold with these new ambitious skyscraper View full entry »

Is flood mitigation the new frontier in urban planning? China, whose urban centers have regularly been experiencing infrastructure-shuttering floods, is actively encouraging its metropolises to start reshaping themselves to handle the new reality via the so-called "sponge city" program. As an... View full entry »

In August, after a multibillion-dollar, year-and-a-half-long battle, Uber agreed to sell its business in China and depart the country.

It was a face-saving retreat for Uber, which got a 17.7 percent ownership stake in Didi and $1 billion in cash. [...]

Investors recently valued Didi at $35 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. Uber, with operations in almost 500 cities on six continents, is worth $68 billion.
— bloomberg.com

More stories from the Uber-verse:The view from inside a self-driving Uber: "the technology is not quite ready"Uber and the future of on-demand public transitGoogle, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo join forces to lobby for autonomous vehiclesWomen-only Uber alternatives face pushback from... View full entry »

Mr Shan Jixiang, head of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, said many of the selected structures tell abundant stories and are witnesses to key events in the nation's history.

He added that the new list will make people aware of the need to preserve more recent architectural sites for future generations. [...]

"Masterpieces of the 20th century prove that Chinese architects' spirit and techniques are well inherited. And they deserve to be passed on to modern times."
— straitstimes.com

98 sites make up China's first 20th-Century Chinese Architectural Heritage List, issued by the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics and the Architectural Society of China. The announcement comes about half a year after the country declared an official end to "weird" architecture.It's not exactly... View full entry »

“Village” may not seem like the right term for a cluster of tenement-style walkups that can house more than 100,000 people. Chengzhongcun hang onto the name partly because of the familiarity evoked by the traditions and small-scale businesses that thrive among their migrant populations, and partly because when modern Shenzhen began growing, these places really were just villages in the middle of the city.
— foreignpolicy.com

Related stories in the Archinect news:A tragic tale of live-and-let-die development on Shanghai's Street of Eternal HappinessAi Weiwei calls modern Chinese architecture 'fatalistic'Take a look at the rapid urbanization of China's Pearl River Delta View full entry »

A glass-bottomed bridge in China that was heralded as a record-breaker when it opened just 13 days ago has closed.

Officials said the government was planning urgent maintenance work in the area and the bridge closed on Friday, with a re-opening time to be announced. [...]

He said there had been no accidents and the bridge was not cracked or broken. [...]

The bridge can accommodate 8,000 visitors a day but the spokesman told CNN that 10 times as many people wanted access daily.
— bbc.com

Yibada reports that the bridge upgrades were going as scheduled and that the attraction was set to re-open to the public this week.Previously in the Archinect news:World's longest and highest glass bridge opens in ChinaChina announces world's longest and highest glass bridge View full entry »

The South Sea Pearl Eco-Island development is funded by HNA Group and will include houses, hotels, a cruise ship port, yacht harbour, spa and theme park. [...]

The jury said the “singular and clear” design would “create a beautiful, iconic form rising naturally out the landscape, recalling the volcanic caldera of the area, and shape the island into a continuous structure that would be an extremely efficient compaction of resort, retail, and housing."
— globalconstructionreview.com

The "eco" stands for... well, it depends. To HNA Group: “This proposal is one for a truly a human-made island that celebrates all that makes such water-bound places so attractive and beautiful, while contributing to our understanding of deep, intrinsic ecology.” To the Permanent Court of... View full entry »